Having a positive, fulfilling environment for your employees is becoming one of the most important factors for many people when considering a new job. We often find that the longer people spend in their professional careers, the more importance they can place on their working environment, and finding one which is right for them.

But in what ways can you, an employer, make work not seem like work?

What A Positive Work Environment Means

A positive work environment does a lot more for a business than one may think.

Employees are generally more happy to be working. This can create better quality working and client relationships and produce more effective outcomes for the business.

The turnover rate of employees also falls, allowing companies to build a stronger, more familiar team, saving time on additional recruitment and training that can occur with a high staff turnover rate.

With the current climate it is important you are able to retain your employees, whilst also ensuring the ones you do have are present and engaged as much as possible.

The above are all linked, as they can have a direct impact on the quality of work produced and outcomes for your business. On good terms, this can lead to more revenue and better exposure for your business!

How Can My Business Become a Positive Environment?

Knowing what a positive work environment means for your business, it is important to understand how it can become a reality.

• Value Mental Health
  
  Positive mental health is absolutely vital and valuable for a productive workforce. 
  
  People handle things differently to others. If you are able to become an approachable employer when considering mental health then your employees will be able to be open and transparent if they experience any hardship in the future. Working together with your team to tackle problems, and being there to support them can be vital in helping them get through tough times.
  
• Incentivise
  
  Nobody is asking you to pay off their mortgage, though if you feel your employees have worked well on a particular project then taking them out for a drink or two after work really goes further than you think. Positive reinforcement like this indicates to them that their work is appreciated and valued, and team activities outside of work can help relationships to blossom.
  
• Work Life Balance
  
  People spend ⅓ of their lives working. Which is a long time when you give it a quick think. We feel it’s vital to appreciate your employees’ down time, especially if they are working long hours for you and your company. Incorporating ‘flexi-time’ into your business gives your employees some well deserved breathing room, and knowing you’re there if and when the unexpected happens gives them confidence in you as a employer.
  

We hope you found this article beneficial for you and your business going forward. These are all principles that Simul Digital operates by, putting our people first as it’s them that deliver for your business and make it what is it today.

To keep up to date with all things Simul Digital follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn – or get in touch today for a coffee to see how we can help give your business a boost in the digital world.

For many people working outside of the digital sphere, the concept of flexible working may seem fairly alien.

With how the worldwide pandemic shaped the working world and the economy, many companies have had no choice but to opt for a flexible work from home mindset.

If you have not considered flexitime for your business then treat this article as a useful guide – you and your workforce may be working from home in the not so distant future.

“People are more productive working at home than people would have expected. Some people thought that everything was just going to fall apart, and it hasn’t.”

Mark Zuckerberg

What actually is flexitime?

The Oxford Dictionary defines flexitime as “a system of working a set number of hours with the starting and finishing times chosen within agreed limits by the employee.”       

This means that employees are able to work around their normal working hours to fit in with their lives and other personal needs.                                                            

For many the concept of flexible working was brought to the forefront when worldwide lockdowns were put in place. The social distancing restrictions meant workers had no other choice but to work from home.

Flexitime – the bigger picture

To many employers flexitime may appear not to be in their favour. 

Employees are choosing when they start and finish and even where the work is completed. These practices have become more typical in today’s modern economy. In 2022 there were a total of 4.3 million workers using flexible working hours within the U.K. 

Implementing this into your business practices can have positive effects on staff overall wellbeing and your impact on the environment, with less commuting comes less carbon emissions. 

• Work Life Balance
  
  More and more working people are raising families and time with them is precious. Having flexitime implemented allows people to spend more time with their loved ones whilst still maintaining the high levels of productivity your business may require from its workers.
  
  
• A better work environment
  
  When you and your employees find yourselves working in the office you may notice some positive differences in the environment. It is being proven that once flexitime is available to workers there are boosts in both workplace morale and productivity.
  
  
• Employee Satisfaction
  
  As a result of the above, you’ll generally find that employee satisfaction will improve, something many people are looking for when looking for a new role. Supporting positive job satisfaction among employees will lead to loyalty from them, reducing the turnover rate in your business.

Drawbacks

Despite flexitime looking like a great idea for modern day businesses, it is important as a senior member of a business to consider the potential drawbacks there are. Although it is a privilege to work flexible hours, some people can abuse the power as you are not able to monitor them fully from home.

Before the implementation it is good practice to test things out with a trial period to see how your staff get on. This eliminates any hiccups in the future.

Simul Digital’s Take On Flexitime

As a company, Simul Digital has implemented flexitime for our employees. Operating with normal business hours with the implementation of flexitime has seen an increase in satisfaction from employees. 

As mentioned it is important to monitor employees workload and productivity when allowing policies like this so your business isn’t hindered, there are many excellent software solutions available for this, to manage tasks, projects, time and communications. 

Flexitime, although being a newer concept is proving to be a highly effective way to work for many businesses and industries. 

To keep up to date with all things Simul Digital follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn – or get in touch today for a coffee to see how we can help give your business a boost in the digital world.

This week, we’re celebrating the success of one of our most recent site launches working in partnership with Sloomy, a leading bed and furniture retailer in West Yorkshire. This was one of the fastest web & marketing launches projects we have ever delivered from start to finish. Among the rush of projects we receive in the run-up to Christmas, we’re very proud of what the team achieved and the results to date.

Read on for further details about the project, and take a read through our Sloomy Case Study to find out more.

A New Bed Business in Town

For over 10 years, Sloomy had been successfully trading from their high-street store in Yorkshire. A family run business, all of their beds, mattresses and headboards are handmade from their West Yorkshire factory, with a focus on efficiency and cost control to ensure their beds are high quality, luxurious and affordable – a recipe for success that has worked well for them in store and results in many happy families across Yorkshire!

The team at Sloomy recognised our extensive experience in marketing furniture retailers online, and had seen the success we had achieved with others. They wanted to incorporate our new Morf furniture configurator into the site, to bring the furniture retail experience online and allow customers to configure their furniture to perfection.

Combined with the website, we were tasked with delivering an explosive marketing launch. Sloomy would be a new bed brand on the block, launching into a heavily competitive online marketplace with some big players – not to mention online marketplaces including Amazon, Etsy and Wayfair.

Building a Successful Brand at Breakneck Speed

The team at Sloomy wanted to be trading online through their new website within 6 weeks. With a full web development backlog and a multitude of Christmas marketing campaigns to launch and manage, we had to pull out all the stops. Our team collaborated to work collectively across every aspect of the online business, creating all of the content from scratch with support from Sloomy to ensure everything was in line with retail. Our planning team worked up a full-proof project plan that brought together the branding, digital design, build, and marketing to be delivered and launched in that time – in what would be a record-breaking fast delivery for our team.

Close Collaboration to Deliver Digital Success

Once we got to work, our team got into their stride and pulled together seamlessly. Following our perfected processes for brand building and site design, our digital design team, marketers and web developers worked in tandem to ensure every aspect of the build was given adequate expertise in the allotted time.

Tight timing and smooth project management was orchestrated by our accounts team to keep all the wheels moving, ensuring everything was delivered on time and within budget.

We took Sloomy’s years of sales experience, quirks and tips from their salesmen, combined with our skill set for displaying and rendering products, making clean efficient online sales journeys, and enriching the experience. Our marketers used their USP’s to ensure all in-store values were replicated online to maximise sales conversion, order values and customer satisfaction.

A Seamless Site with an Explosive Marketing Launch

All our ducks were lined up for an excellent site launch. Following thorough testing, the site went live with high organic visibility and traffic results within a week, supported by strong paid advertising performance to drive traffic and customer interest. Morf was successfully integrated, to enable customers to fully tailor their beds and see them in situ at home before ordering, a key USP of the website.

The first orders occurred within 10 days of go live, and the site continues to outperform all forecasted expectations. Sloomy are overjoyed that they can now sell online as well as in store, replicating their amazing level of customer service and support through the website, with many satisfied customers already.

We’ll continue to work with Sloomy over the coming year to elevate their online presence, drive web sales and grow their brand.

If you want to learn more, or see how we can deliver digital success for your business, get in touch today and let’s see how we can help.